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Yesterday the Social Progress Imperative released their second annual "social progress index" which ranks countries on a variety of factors more aligned with social well-being than economic indicators such as GDP. The usual suspects, New Zealand, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Canada, et al, took their rightful places at the top while, as usual, the United States placed a rather unremarkable sixteenth. Not abysmal yet certainly nothing to write home about.
Enter senior online business editor/reporter for Global News, Jamie Sturgeon. In presenting this report to his readers, the author apparently felt that a tone more associable with a high school newspaper taunting their crosstown rivals was more appropriate than any sort of comprehensive, reasoned analysis of the data. Where does Canada excel/lag and what governmental policies and cultural aspects affect this? In what areas should Canada stay the course or adopt a different approach? In what regards are the nations that are ahead of Canada doing better and how can we borrow their methods? If you're looking for illuminating answers to the previous questions, Sturgeon has absolutely no interest in providing it. Instead you're offered a slightly more wordy, journalistic version of "na-na na-na boo-boo".
If the topic were of, let's say, a hockey game or beer quality, this level of immaturity would be bearable, albeit still unprofessional. However when the topic delves into areas of nourishment, access to water and sanitation, educational access, life expectancy, personal and political freedoms, and crime victimization, you have to wonder how one can justify using the suffering of others to propagate a nationalistic ego trip. For every place the U.S. falls behind Canada on nutrition and basic medical care, significantly more children are going hungry while others are suffering from treatable ailments. For every place the U.S. falls behind Canada on personal safety, significantly more people are victims of violent crime. For every place the U.S. falls behind on shelter, significantly more homeless people wander the streets. Mr. Sturgeon merely sees those people as statistics for his arsenal in the Canada vs U.S. rivalry.
I would love to say Jamie Sturgeon is an anomaly in Canadian journalism but I've witnessed this unabashed gloating attitude from Macleans, Huffpost.ca, the star, and even CBC. What is it about this need for professional journalists in Canada to mime the behavior of jingoistic internet trolls?
Yesterday the Social Progress Imperative released their second annual "social progress index" which ranks countries on a variety of factors more aligned with social well-being than economic indicators such as GDP. The usual suspects, New Zealand, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Canada, et al, took their rightful places at the top while, as usual, the United States placed a rather unremarkable sixteenth. Not abysmal yet certainly nothing to write home about.
Enter senior online business editor/reporter for Global News, Jamie Sturgeon. In presenting this report to his readers, the author apparently felt that a tone more associable with a high school newspaper taunting their crosstown rivals was more appropriate than any sort of comprehensive, reasoned analysis of the data. Where does Canada excel/lag and what governmental policies and cultural aspects affect this? In what areas should Canada stay the course or adopt a different approach? In what regards are the nations that are ahead of Canada doing better and how can we borrow their methods? If you're looking for illuminating answers to the previous questions, Sturgeon has absolutely no interest in providing it. Instead you're offered a slightly more wordy, journalistic version of "na-na na-na boo-boo".
If the topic were of, let's say, a hockey game or beer quality, this level of immaturity would be bearable, albeit still unprofessional. However when the topic delves into areas of nourishment, access to water and sanitation, educational access, life expectancy, personal and political freedoms, and crime victimization, you have to wonder how one can justify using the suffering of others to propagate a nationalistic ego trip. For every place the U.S. falls behind Canada on nutrition and basic medical care, significantly more children are going hungry while others are suffering from treatable ailments. For every place the U.S. falls behind Canada on personal safety, significantly more people are victims of violent crime. For every place the U.S. falls behind on shelter, significantly more homeless people wander the streets. Mr. Sturgeon merely sees those people as statistics for his arsenal in the Canada vs U.S. rivalry.
I would love to say Jamie Sturgeon is an anomaly in Canadian journalism but I've witnessed this unabashed gloating attitude from Macleans, Huffpost.ca, the star, and even CBC. What is it about this need for professional journalists in Canada to mime the behavior of jingoistic internet trolls?
Yesterday the Social Progress Imperative released their second annual "social progress index" which ranks countries on a variety of factors more aligned with social well-being than economic indicators such as GDP. The usual suspects, New Zealand, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Canada, et al, took their rightful places at the top while, as usual, the United States placed a rather unremarkable sixteenth. Not abysmal yet certainly nothing to write home about.
Enter senior online business editor/reporter for Global News, Jamie Sturgeon. In presenting this report to his readers, the author apparently felt that a tone more associable with a high school newspaper taunting their crosstown rivals was more appropriate than any sort of comprehensive, reasoned analysis of the data. Where does Canada excel/lag and what governmental policies and cultural aspects affect this? In what areas should Canada stay the course or adopt a different approach? In what regards are the nations that are ahead of Canada doing better and how can we borrow their methods? If you're looking for illuminating answers to the previous questions, Sturgeon has absolutely no interest in providing it. Instead you're offered a slightly more wordy, journalistic version of "na-na na-na boo-boo".
If the topic were of, let's say, a hockey game or beer quality, this level of immaturity would be bearable, albeit still unprofessional. However when the topic delves into areas of nourishment, access to water and sanitation, educational access, life expectancy, personal and political freedoms, and crime victimization, you have to wonder how one can justify using the suffering of others to propagate a nationalistic ego trip. For every place the U.S. falls behind Canada on nutrition and basic medical care, significantly more children are going hungry while others are suffering from treatable ailments. For every place the U.S. falls behind Canada on personal safety, significantly more people are victims of violent crime. For every place the U.S. falls behind on shelter, significantly more homeless people wander the streets. Mr. Sturgeon merely sees those people as statistics for his arsenal in the Canada vs U.S. rivalry.
I would love to say Jamie Sturgeon is an anomaly in Canadian journalism but I've witnessed this unabashed gloating attitude from Macleans, Huffpost.ca, the star, and even CBC. What is it about this need for professional journalists in Canada to mime the behavior of jingoistic internet trolls?
I'm finding a lot of media has been so dumbed down it's maddening. Not only dumbed down but careless. Global the other day was reporting that two iconic Lion Statues at the entrance to Lions Gate Bridge had been Vandalized. They stated the lions had been there since 1939. People went ballistic.
It took hours before they corrected the story, that it wasn't THOSE lions, but two much smaller replicas placed on an overpass in the 1990's.
Reporting by sloppy Googling seems to be the norm.
Aaah nuts! The rest on here can be sycophantic apololgist suck-ups but I'm going to take another direction and refer you to these examples of why some news media types might feel they've had enough and respond with vigour:
Firstly lets' start with your congressional rep's displaying immaturity for all to see on world news:
There are more than enough examples of over the top churlish crap emanting out of your own "news" media and even your leaders themselves, to keep you busy castigating immature nonsense, so I would suggest before lecturing any Canadian on that feature, you look to the source of the problem and firstly, correct that far more egregious, behaviour.
Lastly I'll refer you to this sample of stupidity that serve to trigger emotive responses from some of us.
"is Canada a socialist country" posted today on this board by one of your confere's who calls himself "Blueblood". Haaar!
Aaah nuts! The rest on here can be sycophantic apololgist suck-ups but I'm going to take another direction and refer you to these examples of why some news media types might feel they've had enough and respond with vigour:
Firstly lets' start with your congressional rep's displaying immaturity for all to see on world news:
There are more than enough examples of over the top churlish crap emanting out of your own "news" media and even your leaders themselves, to keep you busy castigating immature nonsense, so I would suggest before lecturing any Canadian on that feature, you look to the source of the problem and firstly, correct that far more egregious, behaviour.
Lastly I'll refer you to this sample of stupidity that serve to trigger emotive responses from some of us.
"is Canada a socialist country" posted today on this board by one of your confere's who calls himself "Blueblood". Haaar!
No, I don't think it is embarrassing. It's just a reaction to the "the best country in the world" stuff we have all heard coming from the south. No harm is intended. It's like if you have a brother who constantly brags about how he gets all the girls, and then at a party, you, the younger brother, waltz off with the belle of the ball. Of course you are going to brag about it and your brother will never hear the end of it. If your brother had never opened his mouth to begin with, you never would have had any reason to want to rub it in his face.
No, I don't think it is embarrassing. It's just a reaction to the "the best country in the world" stuff we have all heard coming from the south. No harm is intended. It's like if you have a brother who constantly brags about how he gets all the girls, and then at a party, you, the younger brother, waltz off with the belle of the ball. Of course you are going to brag about it and your brother will never hear the end of it. If your brother had never opened his mouth to begin with, you never would have had any reason to want to rub it in his face.
Netwit, I enjoy reading your posts, but do you know how incredibly childish this sounds? We are supposed to be adults here and a member of the media should rise above the BS that should be reserved for internet trolls on a message board.
If your older brother is acting like an idiot, whatever happened to just telling him to chuff off and move on? Why is there ever a reason to act as ridiculously ignorant as him?
And to the OP, the media sucks on both sides of the border. Outside of a few exceptions it is downright terrible.
No, I don't think it is embarrassing. It's just a reaction to the "the best country in the world" stuff we have all heard coming from the south. No harm is intended. It's like if you have a brother who constantly brags about how he gets all the girls, and then at a party, you, the younger brother, waltz off with the belle of the ball. Of course you are going to brag about it and your brother will never hear the end of it. If your brother had never opened his mouth to begin with, you never would have had any reason to want to rub it in his face.
It's Canadians more often saying "We're the better than America" or defining themselves in relation to Americans. I've never heard so much about being the best as when in Canada. Now I'm not denying that there are Americans doing this, but in Canada it is standard practice to compare the country with America. To highlight America's flaws and exaggerate Canada's strengths is practically a culture. I see much, much more self-analysis going on in America rather than comparisons to Canada. Conversely, it is less common to see Canadians critiquing their own country and pointing out their flaws and weaknesses. Canadians are less likely to say "we have problems to fix" and more likely to say "well unlike America, this problem isn't as widespread". Canadians who go valiantly go against the grain and point out problems in Canada are often called "American" or accused of trying to bring American values to Canada. Politicians who want to succeed can bolster support by taking swings at the United States and values perceived as being American. Replace the word "American" with Indian, Chinese, or some other nationality and suddenly the comparisons and denouncements are considered rude and even racist.
When you live in the US you rarely see Americans talking about Canada - let alone bragging about anything in relation to it. No one thinks about Canada very much. But live in Canada you see the US brought up constantly in an almost neurotic fashion. It's a one way rivalry. How do I know? Because I lived in both countries, and attended universities in both countries. Many Canadians use the US as a measure of their own success, and from the classroom to the media, there is a clear inferiority complex relative to America. Your example of the little brother hearing about the successes of his older brother is an excellent example of this mentality. Why are we brothers? Why is Canada the little brother? Why engage in a boasting match? What about the other kid Denmark down the street - why not define yourself against him?
My only wish is for Canadians to define themselves as Canadians rather than in relation to Americans. It would be wonderful to see Canadians forge a strong secure identity, rather than as an identity defined by America. The sort of articles like the one posted by the OP do the opposite. They contribute to the existence of a whiny, insecure, and childlike mindset that should be an embarrassment to straight-thinking Canadians.
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